“If someone leaves an estate of a billion dollars, under their proposal, they would gain $100 million over what the Democrats are proposing for the estate tax,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Illinois Democrat, said on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” “Imagine, Paris Hilton will be able to get an extra $100 million under their plan. It’s obscene. It’s absolutely an offense to us and to most Americans.”

A levy on the transfers of big inheritances, the estate tax has become emblematic of philosophical differences that exist on Capitol Hill, where Mr. Sanders and other liberal-leaning lawmakers claim wealthy Americans simply can afford to contribute more to the national kitty and conservatives say the tax does not deliver the bang for the buck that Democrats claim and that the federal government shouldn’t have a financial stake in how people pass along their personal fortunes.

Yeah, but whose money is it in the first place? And how many times do the rich have to pay taxes on their money? They tax their income at the highest rates. They tax their capital gains from Interest and dividends. And if they’re business owners, they pay a corporate income tax, payroll taxes and other business taxes before they get to pay further taxes on the personal income their businesses pay them. Tax, tax and tax.

And they call the rich greedy?

There’s One for You, Nineteen for Me

All right, just how greedy are these rich?

The first Bush cuts began phasing the estate tax out in 2001 from a top rate of 55 percent to 45 percent in 2009 and then to zero in 2010, with the per-person exemption also rising from $1 million to $3.5 million.

So, if Paris Hilton’s daddy bequeaths her a billion dollars, she gets to keep $450,000,000 while the government gets $550,000,000 (at the 55% estate tax rate). The government gets more than half of her inheritance. Schakowsky is right. I am offended. I am offended that the government can take over half of anyone’s inheritance while doing nothing to earn that money. Like the Hiltons did.

And my advice for those who die, (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes. (taxman)

The government wants your money. They want it when you work. When you retire. And when you die. Have you ever wondered why the government is so opposed to privatizing Social Security? Because your Social Security ‘retirement fund’ is taxed at 100% at your death.

Public Sector Unions are Expensive

So why do they want so much of our money? Because public sector unions are expensive (see Government Unions vs. Taxpayers by Tim Pawlenty, governor of Minnesota, posted 12/13/2010 on The Wall Street Journal).

The majority of union members today no longer work in construction, manufacturing or “strong back” jobs. They work for government, which, thanks to President Obama, has become the only booming “industry” left in our economy. Since January 2008 the private sector has lost nearly eight million jobs while local, state and federal governments added 590,000.

Federal employees receive an average of $123,049 annually in pay and benefits, twice the average of the private sector. And across the country, at every level of government, the pattern is the same: Unionized public employees are making more money, receiving more generous benefits, and enjoying greater job security than the working families forced to pay for it with ever-higher taxes, deficits and debt.

It never changes. The politically connected always exploit the masses. The only difference today from yesterday’s noble classes and aristocracy is that membership isn’t based on blood. They don’t inherit title and rank these days. Which probably explains why the ruling elite has no qualms about a confiscatory estate tax.

Public Sector Unions and Dictators

It’s not easy screwing the masses in a democracy. You need help. Some political muscle. Some guns for hire.

Public employee unions contribute mightily to the campaigns of liberal politicians ($91 million in the midterm elections alone) who vote to increase government pay and workers. As more government employees join the unions and pay dues, the union bosses pour ever more money and energy into liberal campaigns. The result is that certain states are now approaching default. Decades of overpromising and fiscal malpractice by state and local officials have created unfunded public employee benefit liabilities of more than $3 trillion.

Life in Cuba and North Korea is deplorable. And yet their rulers have held power for decades. And how did they do this? Well, life may suck for your run of the mill North Korean and Cuban, but life is very good for those around the dictators. They take care of the dictators. And the dictators take very good care of them. One can’t survive without the other. So they take care of each other.

Ditto for public sector unions.

Who’s Exploiting Whom?

Once upon a time factories were like Dickens novels. So the unions organized.

The moral case for unions—protecting working families from exploitation—does not apply to public employment. Government employees today are among the most protected, well-paid employees in the country. Ironically, public-sector unions have become the exploiters, and working families once again need someone to stand up for them.

Government work. When someone is goofing off at work, the joke is that they’re doing government work. Because government workers get paid very well. For phony baloney jobs. Many of these jobs are so useless that no one would ever notice if we eliminated them. Life would go on as before. Well, we would probably be taxed a whole lot less. But other than that, the elimination of these jobs wouldn’t make the slightest difference in anyone’s life.

But we’re stuck with these jobs. And we pay for them. With confiscatory taxes. Even after we die. So, like George Harrison said, you better declare those pennies on your eyes. When they lay you in your coffin. Because the taxman is coming for you. And your estate.